UNEXPECTED BLIPMEET

Well, what a day we have had today!  Because Sue has been suffering with a knee issue, and is waiting for a knee op, I didn’t think we would be going out that much, but this morning, although it was a bit grey and dull, she told me she had had a good night and asked if I would like to go to Northallerton.  Of course, I said that would be a great idea, so off we went.

We arrived and parked and although Sue has to use two sticks to walk, she did very well and we had a good time wandering in the High Street - although there was a lot going on as a huge fair is due to start this evening and over the Bank Holiday weekend, but we managed.

Just after midday, we arrived at the place Sue had decided she would treat me to lunch - the famous “Betty’s”!  We had a table just inside the tearooms, so that she didn’t have to walk too far and sat down waiting to be served.  I had just taken a selfie of the two of us when a man walked over to our table, looked at me and said “Are you Mrs. HCB?”  Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather!!  He then introduced himself as JohnRH, a Blipper I have followed for sometime, who said that he had recognised me when I walked in and decided he would come over and speak to me.  To say I was “tickled pink” would be an understatement.  Sue was gobsmacked that I was over 250 miles from where I lived, had never met this man in my life, and yet he calmly walked up to me and asked if I was Mrs. HCB!  Of course, we had to have a selfie, and he took one on his phone too.  We didn’t have long to chat, because our soup was about to arrive, so when I had finished that I went over and spoke to him and his wife, Wendy.  

John and his wife had been to a funeral in this area, and they were on their way north to Scotland, but had stopped off in Northallerton to come to Betty’s, which is a very famous TeaRoom in North Yorkshire.  Just imagine, as Sue said, if we had been a hour earlier or later, our paths wouldn’t have crossed! I think they call that “serendipitous”!  See my collage to see the handsome JohnRH and me in a selfie!

After I had finished my soup and before we had our Rarebit - also in the collage, I went and spoke to both John and Wendy at their table - well that was the plan, except I caught hold of the arm of a man I thought was John and said “How lovely to see you, but I thought I should come and introduce myself to your wife” - and then realised that it was the wrong man!!  Only I could do that - but I just smiled sweetly and moved on to the next table, where John and Wendy were both sitting!  We had a lovely chat and I promised that if and when we visit North Norfolk, which Mr. HCB has often said we must do, we would make sure we had a proper Blipmeet.

When I went back to our table, another lady - who we later found out was called Christine, and her Mother called BBarbara, who was in a wheelchair came and sat at the table next to us.  We got chatting to them and discovered that Barbara’s birthday was on the same day as mine - 26th December - she said that she had never known anyone else with the same birthday!  Brenda is 96 years old, so we both said that we would meet at Betty’s on 26th December 2025, when she will be 100 years old and I will be 80!  Christine said she didn’t think Betty’s would be open on that day, but I said I was sure if they knew the circumstances, they would be happy to open the TeaRoom.  

It got even more coincidental when Christine and Sue were chatting.  Sue has a friend called Marjorie, whose husband died in October last year and it turned out that Christine’s husband knew Marjorie’s husband and was actually at his funeral - Sue said she was there too, so they had probably brushed shoulders!

What a day!  We waited for Christine and Barbara to come out of the “Accessible” toilet - it wasn’t marked “Disabled” - and made an arch out of Sue’s two walking sticks singing “Underneath the Arches” as they walked under them.  When we went into the shop at the front a few minutes later, one of the assistants asked if we had been singing and when we said we had, she told us that they had all stopped because they could hear this lovely singing coming from the corridor near the shop.  

So that was our day - and a lovely day it was too.  Meanwhile, Mr. HCB has been all kitted out, so he told me, in anorak, hat, gloves and scarf, watching cricket at Bristol - I just hope it was worth all that time in the cold.  Can’t wait to tell him all my news for the day.

“There will always be a reason

    why you meet people;
         either you need them
              to change your life
or you’re the one who will change theirs.”

Angel Flonis Harefa.”

P.S.  In case you are wondering, we did have something off the sweet trolley - well we thought it would be rude not to and said we wouldn’t have anything else to eat for the rest of the day!